Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Outside the courthouse, the sun was doing that thing where it’s almost offensively bright and cheerful, like it’s
mocking you.
Perfect day to burn your whole life down and start over.
I stood there gulping air until my lungs stopped feeling like they were in a vise.
It was just a divorce.
Millions of people got divorced. The world kept spinning.
I hadn’t told anyone I was leaving-only my best friend Lily knew.
The Connor family had gotten powerful enough over the years that even my own parents tiptoed around them now.
If word got out that I was planning to vanish, I’d be drowning in phone calls from people trying to convince me to stay and “work things out p>
Lily was currently wrestling three enormous suitcases onto a luggage cart, her face red from exertion as she navigated through the airport crowds while I finished checking in.
“When you land, promise me you’ll actually give a shit about yourself for once p>
She shot me a look that was half concern, half fury.
“No more wasting energy on those two selfish pricks p>
She squeezed my hand hard enough to hurt.
“Nobody’s getting your location out of me. I don’t care who asks. I’ll lie to God himself if I have to p>
For the next five minutes she launched into an increasingly creative and profane character assassination of Derek, her voice climbing loud enough that a family nearby hurried their kids past us. Finally she grabbed me by both shoulders and got right in my face.
“Your one job now-your only job-is to be obnoxiously, insufferably happy. You got that p>
Before I could answer, she’d already turned and bolted toward the exit.
Running away before I could see her lose it.
She was too late. I was already falling apart.
Chapter 3
The second she’d turned around, something broke open in my chest and now I couldn’t make it stop.
Happiness.
What a fucking joke that word had become.
Maybe only someone who’d been there through all of it-who’d actually watched what was happening to me-could see how completely happiness had been missing from my life.
At seventeen, when I first saw Derek across a college mixer and felt my entire world tilt on its axis, I thought I’d
found it.
At eighteen, when we randomly crossed paths at a café in Paris during my study abroad and he not only remembered me but asked for my number, I was sure of it.
At twenty-two, walking toward him in that stupid expensive wedding dress while everyone cried happy tears, I believed I’d secured happiness for the rest of my life.
At twenty-three, throwing up every morning and feeling like death but glowing because I was carrying his baby, I actually thought the universe loved me-that I’d somehow won the lottery and gotten everything I’d ever wanted.
Looking back now, the whole thing felt like one of those dreams where you’re desperately trying to hold onto something beautiful and it just keeps dissolving in your hands.
None of it had been real.
All that happiness had only ever existed in my imagination.
From day one, Derek had kept Nina in first place. Even when she belonged to someone else. Even when he’d made
vows to me.
He’d been willing to take our son and hand him over to herke he was a borrowed book she’d wanted to read.
God, I’d been so fucking stupid.
I don’t know how long I stood there in the middle of the terminal with tears running down my face. Eventually the boarding announcement jolted me back to the present.
My phone lit up. Several notifications in a row.
Derek.
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Joseph King
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.